


my skin is a mirror

by KeyKnows



Series: ToS Week 2017 [2]
Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Sad, Spiritual, ToS Week 2017, i can't write happy things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:17:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeyKnows/pseuds/KeyKnows
Summary: "Martel," he calls you but it's not really you he calls for.





	my skin is a mirror

You’re not sure how you manage the task, but shortly after the idea comes to you, you find yourself gathering mana around yourself, giving it shape and form and calling upon the nature of water and slowly but surely your thoughts take form.

The spring around the World Tree is small, but fitting for the state of the Tree itself. You look at it for a while, admiring your own handiwork and decide: you’ve been doing well, for such a newly born spirit.

You play around a little with the water, draw a cascade that divides and falls in small streams around the sides of the Tree. You spend a long while doing this, thought time is unimportant for someone as ancient as you.

It’s a weird thought, that you’re both young and old, that the mana that makes you up has been around from millennia, that you contain the voices and wishes of many and, still, you’re not any of them.

“Martel,” someone calls behind you.

You turn, giving them the satisfaction of appearing surprise, even though their footsteps resonated within the earth, and therefore within you, the moment they entered this holy ground.

It’s the half-elf call Yuan the one that calls your name.

But it’s not your name the one he calls, but the name of Martel Yggdrasil.

He stares at you in some kind of confusion. He always looks like this, you’ve noticed, when he comes here and when he utters your name, like he’s pondering if he should apologize for seeing you and seeing someone else.

“Hello,” you say, and the sound of your voice, otherworldly, grounds him to here and now “I suppose you came to watch over the Tree.”

“Yes.” Is all he says as he walks towards you “The spring wasn’t here before.”

You smile.

“I just made it.” You say, with something akin to proud.

He steals glance and you the whole time he stays, like assessing your presence. His company doesn’t bother you but you find his actions sad.

You don’t know in detail who Martel Yggdrasil was, what she did or why, your knowledge of the world is limited to this pertinent to your duties but still, the soul of Martel Yggdrasil resonates with special force inside of you. There’s a reason you wear her face, after all.

It’s hard to say to whom the sadness you feel belongs to.

Yuan stays until he sun comes down. He doesn’t need to come here daily, or even stay for so long, to fulfill his duty as guardian of the Tree, but he comes anyway like he’s looking for something that he may only find here. You think it’s more a someone he’s looking for.

To know this fills you with more sorrow. To watch him go as the day ends, appearing a ghost, lost and dejected being for failing of succeeding in his search, makes your metaphoric heart bleed.

It’s hard to say, as you feel this, who really wears the other’s skin.

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah like i missed like two days already but, yeah i'm trying
> 
> Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
